


Goofball

by RevyDutch



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Contest Fic, Drabble, F/F, Flashback, shortfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 07:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3720556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RevyDutch/pseuds/RevyDutch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She didn't mean to sit by the van. She really didn't.</p>
<p>(First of three fics I'm writing for the winners of my 500 followers on tumblr contest~)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goofball

_“I can sing!”_

The words rattled Pearl’s mind. She sat in the rain, a bit back from the van at the car wash, but close enough to hear the story from inside. Admittedly at first, she was only there to protect Steven (she still couldn’t trust Greg, no matter how hard she  didn’t tried), but quickly found herself eavesdropping. 

She expected nothing more than the two of them acting as “goofballs”, as Steven would put it. The last thing she wanted to hear was _her_ name echoing that musky, lice-ridden shackle of a van, yet here she was. As Greg told his story to Steven, Pearl closed her eyes and pictured that day perfectly...

_“Rose!” Pearl, chipper as ever, was young then. Well, young by human standards, that is. Her face lit up like the stars above her in the night sky that graced the beach, something resembling a heart fluttering as she appeared through the door. Rose chuckled, the sound always causing Pearl to smile with such joy._

_Pearl was gathering small stones created by a creature they destroyed that day. Fearing they would be explosive, she put herself to the task of cleaning them up. Garnet was off on some other mission, Amethyst would set them off on purpose, and why would she ask Rose to do such a tedious task? She had just finished collecting the final stone as she ran up to Rose._

_“I see you’ve kept yourself busy,” Rose said in her kind voice. She smiled, and Pearl lit up, a small blush appearing on her face._

_“W-Well someone had to do it,” She turned away, stammering over her words. Rose chucked again, she had a habit of doing that._

_“If you’re done with that, then do you have time to explore the town?” Rose asked. Pearl turned away, still scared of outside contact. Unfortunately, her fear traversed into a yell, being afraid of the unknown causing distress from within._

_“Rose! You know you can’t! What if...” she swallowed her words. “What if a human sees you...”_

_“We have nothing to fear from the humans!” Rose quickly countered. Pearl started to recluse into herself. The last thing she wanted was for her to be angry with her, but Pearl knew she had to stand her ground._

_“We agreed to stay separate! It’s just...” Pearl knew her words were a lost cause, and she was just digging the hole deeper. “We agreed! It’s just how things are-”_

_“Things can change.” Rose’s voice was determined, but with grace. With that, she flew away from Pearl, regretting everything..._

Back in the present day, Pearl opened her eyes. She quickly brought her hands to them, unfortunately familiar tears falling with the rain. She discovered she was closer to the van now, her back right against it. She continued listening to Greg. 

“So then, I’m singing this song at your mom’s door, and what do you know!?” Greg’s voice was as... exciting as ever. “She comes out wearing-”

“The shirt!” 

Pearl adored Steven’s young voice so, so much. She could just imagine his star-ridden eyes. The same ones _she_ had.

Greg continued his story: “That’s right, the shirt! She comes out saying some mumbo jumbo about how I have a life and its short and I have dreams and stuff. But then, she tells me to ‘get what I want’, and you know what I said?”

Pearl held herself. She doesn’t want to hear this. Why is she even here? These thoughts and rambles began to clutter her mind, yet she remained as the rain bounced off her skin. She wanted to regret that argument so much. Maybe she wouldn’t have gone to that concert? Maybe she wouldn’t have brought Greg home? Maybe she would have...

_“I can sing!”_ The words terrorized Pearl’s mind.

“I told her, ‘You’re all that I want!’” Greg erupted into a gigantic laughter. Pearl covered her ears. She had enough of this obnoxious voice, and she was almost ready to scream. The laughter died down as Greg asked Steven: “What?”

There was a pause. “You LOOOOOOOVED her!” Steven shouted, joyful as ever. She could hear the fun father and son shared, wondering if _she_ was bringing this happiness to them.

“I did,” Pearl whispered. She shivered as she finally allowed the rain to touch her.

**Author's Note:**

> pai-shodown pls forgiv for angsty pearl/rose I really couldn't think up anything else with them FORGIVENESS.
> 
> Also I explicitly waited until after Story For Steven to write this, in case there were interesting developments. Case in point, I turned one of the cutest "PEARL IS SO GAY FOR ROSE" lines into THE SADDEST THING EVER I AM SO SORRY.
> 
> ANYWAY I HOPE YOU LIKE IT AND STUFF (if you have ao3 lemme know so I can gift this thing to you!)


End file.
